1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to lottery-type gaming systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to a game of chance that adds variable on-going content, such as fantasy sports players"" performances, and contains an incentive to continue to play the game on an on-going basis.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traditional scratch-off lottery games are well known in the art. To play these games, a purchaser buys a ticket for a set price, usually $1 to $5, at any of a number of authorized ticket outlets such as gas stations. After the ticket is purchased, the purchaser removes opaque material which obscures the winning or losing gaming indicia imprinted thereon. Once this coating is removed, the purchaser will know if he holds a winning ticket. The fact that the winning or losing gaming indicia is pre-printed on the ticket distinguishes this form of lottery game from the various other forms in which winning numbers are drawn some time after the sale of the ticket.
These categories of games and all the other currently available instant lottery games have a predetermined number of winning tickets. The ticket that has the winning indicia is sold randomly among the other tickets. The purchaser has no role in making the ticket he buys a winning one, nor has he the choice of entering his lucky numbers as he does in purchasing the conventional lottery ticket.
Scratch-off lottery tickets suffer from several drawbacks. These include the costs of printing tickets, the physical inventory costs, the costs to the lottery authority and retailer associated with unsold tickets, the inability to effectively offer low-price games (e.g., $0.25, $0.10), and the limited game choices for the player.
Some of these drawbacks can be overcome by implementing similar games on-line using the Internet or other suitable computer networks. The computer network, the user or purchaser, the software involved in facilitating the game, and so forth, is commonly refered to as a remote gaming system. One such system can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,640 titled Off-Line Remote Lottery System, which is herein incorporated by reference. In that system lottery games are typically embodied in a ticket having multiple plays which represent a single overall outcome offered by a lottery authority. They are rendered on a gaming computer as an xe2x80x9celectronic ticket,xe2x80x9d such as a dedicated hand-held device or programmed general personal computer, which enables a player to reveal the ticket outcome with the same convenience as typical paper scratch-off tickets.
An important aspect of the lottery games referenced above is the content of the game. Lottery Authorities and other game promoters expend a substantial amount of effort trying to increase the satisfaction derived by a purchaser of a ticket. Traditional lotteries have increased player satisfaction by allowing players to pick their own numbers. Additionally, these lotteries build suspense by players having to wait to see what the winning numbers are.
With instant lotteries, all the numbers are pre-printed and the outcome is immediately apparent. Thus, instant lotteries must resort to more intricate gaming indicia on the ticket. For instance, an instant lottery player derives more satisfaction from scratching off all the spaces on a tic-tac-toe grid to see if he has three identical dollar values in row than he does from simply scratching off one space that says either xe2x80x9closexe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cwinxe2x80x9d. The content must continually be changed and improved to keep sales from falling off, and must be dramatically improved to increase sales.
Thus, known lotteries do not provide content that makes the game more satisfying and interesting, nor do they build suspense in the players as they await an outcome. Furthermore, no content exists in known lotteries between the time a ticket is purchased and the time the winning numbers are announced. Additional on-going content during that time would increase player satisfaction and thus ticket sales.
Finally, known lottery games do not have a game component that encourages a single player to play repeatedly, day after day, other than the usual enticement of a chance to win money with the individual ticket purchased. Such a component becomes important when the game is played on-line using the Internet or other suitable computer network where the player interface (such as a web page) contains other content such that the game administrator derives value from the simple fact that a player views the interface.
The ability to drive users of a computer network to a particular site on the network, is extremely important from a business perspective. First of all, if there are goods or services for sale at that location, the more people that see them, the more they will be purchased. Second, the owners of such locations commonly sell advertising space to other purveyors of goods and services. The more people that visit the location, the higher the price for which that advertising may be sold. Another important goal for the owner of any location on a computer network is to collect demographic information about the people who visit the location. The more detailed the information is, the more valuable it is to the marketing efforts of the owner of that information. The information can also be sold, or can be used to convince advertisers that they would benefit from advertising at that location.
Therefore, there exists a need to provide a lottery type game that provides instant and ongoing content to heighten the satisfaction that a player derives from playing without increasing the skill level required to play and while providing an incentive to play continuously. There exists a further need to provide such a game on-line for the purpose of driving users of a computer network to a player interface displaying other content such as advertising, and to encourage players to play repeatedly.
The present invention provides an interactive fantasy lottery type game. Game pieces contain content, the meaning of which will change or develop over time to determine who wins the lottery at a set point in the future. The content is ordinarily assigned by the game""s organizer or facilitator rather than chosen by the player. In one embodiment, the content of the game is one or more sports figures. The lottery player interacts with a game piece to reveal the sports figure or figures. Each sports figure has an associated event that the sports figure is involved in and associated point values that may be accumulated based on the sports figure""s performance. For instance, a basketball player may count for points based on 3-pointers made, a boxer if he knocks his opponent out, or an auto racer if he gets in a crash. The player can then monitor the progress of his sports figures in an upcoming contest or contests, can check the results later, or can rely on the game""s administrator to tabulate the results. Accordingly, a player can spend any desired amount of time and effort experiencing the content of the game, but need not exhibit any skill in picking sports figures, monitoring the status of the game, or tabulating results, in order to play and win. A player whose sports figures accumulate the most number of points over a specified period of time, wins the lottery. Alternatively, a selected number of players with the highest totals of points may receive varying amounts of prizes. More players are likely to be encouraged to play this type of game because they can effectively play against other players that they know, and they can discuss how their game piece is doing. Other on-going content such as stock performances, award ceremonies, or other measurable but yet to determined, reality-based outcomes are contemplated.
Because the outcomes of on-going contest games are not predetermined, a substantial likelihood of a tie exists. Consequently, the game provides for tie-breakers. In one embodiment, the winner is selected from a drawing of all players tied. In another embodiment, the tied players split the money to be awarded equally. In another embodiment, the tied players each receive one or more additional game pieces and the player with the highest total from that set of sports figures and events wins. Any of these embodiments are equally applicable in games where there is more than one prize such as a first, second, and third prize with corresponding decreasing value.
In another embodiment, the game is administered through the use of a computer network. In this embodiment, anyone with access to the computer network can play the game. A player must first access the server site or web page containing the data files corresponding to the game to display an electronic game piece on a player interface. In order to establish who the player is, and to associate him with the game piece, the player must login to the game by providing identifying indicia such as a username and password. First time players may also be required to provide additional information for the purpose of notifying the player in the event that he wins. Once a player is successfully logged in, he can interact with the game piece using a mouse or other input device to reveal the gaming indicia on the electronic ticket. The gaming indicia consists of one or more, and preferably three, sports figures. The player has no control over which sports figures are on his ticket. Associated with each sports figure is an upcoming sports event that will feature that sports figure, and associated point values to be awarded to the ticket holder based upon the sports figure""s performance. The point values may be associated with any measurable statistic. Once the player has revealed all of his sports figures, his entry is recorded.
The game operates by virtue of an associated software program, player data files, and a database of sports figures, such that it can keep track of the point totals associated with each sports figure and accumulated by each player. A given player""s totals can be displayed on the player interface in response to input from the player as can the current standings showing which players have the highest point total and at the end of that game, which players win prizes. The player who ends up with the most points after the completion of all events wins. A player may be required to log back on in order to win, or may be notified by e-mail or other equitable media. This embodiment may also incorporate the tie-breakers and multiple prizes previously discussed.
In another embodiment, more than one set of events and associated sports figure performances counts toward the total points in a single game. Thus, a player may acquire more than one ticket in a single game with the point total of all tickets determining the winner or winners. In this embodiment, no one player can be given the opportunity to get more tickets than any other player. On the other hand, all players have an incentive to acquire the maximum number of tickets possible. Therefore, each player may only obtain a set number of tickets in a set amount of time.
In another embodiment, multiple tickets may be obtained by a player, as in the previous embodiment, but each single ticket must be obtained within a certain prescribed time which is less than the total time that the game runs. For example, a player may obtain only one ticket per day with the total point value at the end of a week determining the winner. Thus a player has an incentive to play every day. This embodiment is particularly useful for the purpose of driving users of a computer network to a player interface displaying other content such as advertising or the sale of goods or services, because it encourages players to visit that same player interface every day. Value is derived, mostly by way of advertising, from the act of a player accessing the game, and that value can be increased by the incentive to access the game repeatedly. Because of the value to the game administrator that can be derived from the act of playing the game, the game itself can be offered for free. Thus, players have more incentive to play the game, and thus view the player interface and its total content, because they can win without having to pay anything to play as they would have to in order to play traditional lotteries.